Perennial; culms 40-115 cm. high, erect or ascending, simple or sparingly branched from the middle nodes, the nodes densely short-pubescent or nearly glabrous; sheaths shorter than the internodes, keeled, from glabrous to papillose-pilose, hairy on the collar, the margins rather densely ciliate; ligule membrana-ceous, 1-1.5 mm. long; blades 10-40 cm. long, 3-10 mm. wide, stiff, somewhat spreading, densely pilose on both surfaces, the hairs rather stiff, the margins scabrous; peduncles 1-4 from the upper and middle sheaths, elongate or almost included; racemes solitary, 6-17 cm. long, arcuate, the rachis narrowly winged, the margins scabrous, more or less ciliate; spikelets paired, crowded, 2.6-3 mm. long, elliptic, glabrous; first glume small or as much as half as long as the spikelet, rarely obsolete; second glume and sterile lemma firm, subequal, or the second glume a little shorter, exposing the fruit, the lemma enclosing a palea and sometimes a staminate flower; fruit about 2.5 mm. long, striate.
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